Telenet Holds Up P2P traffic
Belgian cable operator Telenet confirmed that it is currently experimenting with “traffic management” or “traffic shaping” methods.
This means that p2p file sharing applications will be slowed down by the ISP. While the company announced its decision to conduct tests, it declined to provide any info regarding a timeframe. It also said that all European countries should participate in the debate over net neutrality.
Meanwhile, Belgium is trying to figure out how to best implement European directives.
Italian Court Holds Yahoo! Liable For Copyright Infringement
Earlier this week the Court of Rome ruled that Yahoo! Italia was liable for facilitating copyright infringement. The decision of the court is related to the award winning Iranian movie “About Elly” which recently found its way on several popular p2p file-sharing websites and networks.
According to the court, the liability of Yahoo! Italia was due to it being sent notification from PFA – (the Italian distributor of the movie) that its search index was providing link to websites and services making the film available for illegal streaming and downloading and not acting upon it accordingly.
PFA also complained that Yahoo! Italia showed results which favoured the links to copyright infringing content. It claimed that file-sharing websites displayed higher in search results that the film’s official website enabling internet users to find their way to unauthorised sites easier.
PFA’s claims toward the court were rather exaggerated as they included: ordering Yahoo! Italia to remove the links to infringing content, issuing an injunction to prevent further copyright infringement acts, ordering Yahoo! Italia to pay €1,000 ($) for each minute and €10,000 ( $) for each day it failed to comply with the order, provide for publication of the order.
The court ruled that despite being aware of the infringing links, the search giant chose to take no measure against them. The court also ordered the immediate removal of all links to infringing websites. The problem is the court did not specify the URLs in question that started the whole quarrel.
Unhappy with the court’s decision, Yahoo! Italia said it would be appealing the ruling.
It’s interesting to follow how this decision will echo on future such cases involving search engines.